Rain and Melting Snow Causes Flooding

The weekend warm-up and the rain that’s been falling is shrinking snowbanks.But the water doesn’t have anywhere to go, which has caused flooding.And that meant work for road crews and home owners who woke Monday up to roadways, and basements, full of water.Many deal with damp basements in the spring, but seeing more than a foot of water at the bottom step is a cause for concern.That kept crews from the Bangor Fire Department busy.”Due to the weather today, (Monday) last couple of days it’s been really warm, so we had a lot of snow melt yesterday and heavy rains today,” said Scott Bolduc a Bangor Firefighter and Paramedic. “Yeah it is pretty normal that we do these many calls.”Nine calls came in before ten am.On Lane Street alone, there were five houses with water in the basement.”If the water level reaches the furnace, it could shut your furnace off and create all sorts of problems,” said Bolduc. “So if the water level does reach that, it’s best to call us and we’ll come over with these pumps and hoses and we’ll set the pumps down in the basement and extract the water.”But each call to the fire department comes with a per hour fee.For Public Works crews, they have some traditional areas to watch, but the problems from this storm were not in the typical places said Bangor Public Works Yard Foreman Bernie Keene. “New found, because the rain came so fast, so quick and so fast there was so much of it, the basins just couldn’t keep up, the lines couldn’t.”That caused flooding in spots on city streets, and sometimes pumping one line into another, like what they were doing on Mount Hope Avenue.”We’ve been cleaning some basins off,” said Keene. “Punching some holes in snowbanks to relieve some waters in the street, a lot of the pipes, a lot of the time they’re just full to capacity and they can’t hold any more water.”If there is flooding in your area, or you find a flooded street, contact the local public works department to make sure they’re aware of it.